Don't read this article...

Don't read this article if 2007 will be another year of ordinary, pleasant achievements.  Do NOT read this article if you have no intention of making 2007 a living, breathing, hourly adventure of your determination to become your authentic self. 

DO read this article if in 2007 you are planning to be authentic to who you are and what you can uncomfortably achieve. 

The end of January is around the corner.  The book is closing.  (You know, those little black books that you are supposed to write your annual goals in.) 

Have you written what you will accomplish in 2007?  Have you had a fierce conversation with your team as to who you will become?  If you have not, this is the month.  If you haven't, and don't plan to, well, 2007 will be just like 2006, and like 2005, and, well, you know. 

In 2007, you might achieve some great things.  Life could be rather pleasant.  Maybe it will happen. 

However, without full, unbridled attention, you sacrifice your authenticity.  You sacrifice what you are truly capable of.  Worst of all, the people who are counting on you will have results that will be nice, respectable, impressive, but not the extraordinary results that you can produce.

I just spent three days with a team who is committed to being in integrity to achieve a bold BHAG (big hairy audacious goal.)  The team spent two days in the desert, sacrificing niceties, pleasant speeches, comfortable conversations to deeply look at whether their actions correspond to who they say they were. 

This team is number one in its industry.  They are all bright, talented, and motivated.  Still, what they want at the end of the day is to be able to look in the mirror and say we were authentic.  We acted in accordance to what we are capable of.  We will have no regrets at the end of the year.  We dispensed with what we could do, what we’d like to do, and we defined what we must do to clearly define a plan that will lead to our fulfilling our potential.

Their BHAG is scary.  Their BHAG is almost impossible.  Yet, their BHAG is perhaps their greatest tool in guiding them to become what they authentically know themselves to be.

Authenticity requires that you answer the following questions for 2007:

(1)      Who are you?

Now, this is the either the simplest, or most complex question, you can ask yourself.  I can tell you one thing.  Most people answer this question, as if it were a different question.  Most people answer this question, as if it said, “Who were you?”  They tell me what they have done.  They tell me what they think they are capable of.  They argue for an ordinary existence.  They argue for the reasonable results that they have achieved. 

To answer the question authentically, your first premonition must be, “I don’t know.”  I have no idea what I am capable of.  My history only proves what I can achieve, but it doesn’t say anything about what I am now authentically qualified to create. 

(2)              What do you want?

Surprise!  The authentic answer to the first question IS the answer to this second question.  “What do you want” IS who you are.  “What do you want” shows your authentic self.  Living “what do you want” is a way of active engagement in the world. 

Those who are authentic can answer “what do you want” without hesitation.  Those who can’t answer are still living in 2006, or 2005, or...

Authentic individuals will not only tell you what they want, they will show you.  They have a list of goals.  The words that they speak show their desire.  They have a plan to achieve their goals.  Their actions represent their wanting.  Their desires are their commitments. 

Not only will you be able to see their written goals, you will see them making requests.  You will see them building teams around what they want.  Authentic individuals communicate who they truly are becoming and charge others to hold them accountable to attain everything they are committed to achieving.

Here are three things you can do to ensure you live authentically in 2007:

1)     Write down your goals.  What you want is who you are.

2)     Tell someone what your goals are.  If they are really important, you must share them.

3)    Have someone hold you accountable.  Authenticity is Accountability. 

If you follow these three simple steps, 2007 will not only be the year of living in dangerous authenticity.  2007 will become, as Kendra Van Note and Tracy Landowski of Grubb & Ellis/BRE Commercial have committed themselves to, 2007 will become - 2000 and Heaven.

I would be honored to be the one to provoke you to achieve the extraordinary.

Have an extraordinary year.